my mother purchased a swing set for the grand kids. my father in law and i have been "struggling" with the assembly instructions for it. neither of us struggle with assembly of most things. we both studied/read the instructions before we began.

after getting started we realized quickly that the instructions were horrible. almost everything is pre-drilled, but the pics showed holes facing one way, then in the pics for the next step, the board was turned around. of course, only the pics gave clues to to board orientation. at about half way through(3 hours of work) we have had to undo and turn 3 boards around.

i only had a few hours to work on it before i had to get ready for my real job, but towards the end, we got to where we built the ladder to get into the swing set. it was not predrilled so i ad to figure out even spacing for the rungs. not a big deal, except the instructions suggest a 2 and 4'5" spacing between rungs...i re-read that line, wondering how i missed it the first time through...looked at my tape measure..turned to my father in law and told him that we were done, the tape measure was defective...

i can't seem to find one anywhere..


















before any one asks, we kept working for a little while longer before i had to quit for the day...i spaced them at 2 and 7/8".

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SDMF

Have you made inquiries in the country of the swingset's origin?

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Wisdom comes thru fear . . .

I'd use 13/16 - close enough...

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Lou

That sounds like the childrens play kitchen we put together for the grand kids a few years back. The outside of the HUGE box said some adult assembly required. After two hours and a lot of bad language we were still not finished. I also did an R/C plane for myself a while back and almost never got it done. When I did, I figured something was wrong and never did get the plane to stay in the air. I think both these were made in China and they have a program to slowly drive us all nuts with their directions.

Mine only reads 8/10ths.....

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Even older, even crankier....

"Country of origin" has a lot to do with it, most important information is lost in the translation.

After looking at the playsets at Wal-Mart, I built my granddaughters myself. Theirs was nothing but a worthless pile of kindling.

you need a micrometer for that swing set.


Charlie

Toss the directions and wing it.We are men!

Unless it's meant to be water tight, as suggested 13/16" is pretty dam close.

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paws for friendship

I suspect "Chinglish"

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Minimize the variables

they have those tape measures at Lowe's next to the left handed adjustable metric wrenches.

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Semper Fi

Directions got really horrible for about 30 years then they got unusable. They assume you will automatically go to their website but the jokes on you. It's not any better!

Those directions are only to make you crazy. I've always found it irritating to have to deal with our fraction method of measuring. A couple of years ago, I had a project to build a large deer blind, and decided to use ONLY metric measurements. After finally finding a metric tape measure, I very quickly discovered that metric was a lot easier and more accurate. When assembly was complete, everything fit like a glove. Now, whenever I build something, it's always with metric - wish I'd made the move years ago.

It's easy. Find an abacus. That'll do.

Dave Brubeck should be playing the soundtrack for this misadventure..

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Why, I aughta.....

A slide rule or triangular (architect's) scale will work. Or use 3/4 of an inch (0.75" versus 0.8").

as you wish.................

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PHdU5sHigYQ

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There's nowt so queer as folk

If the directions say it's so easy a child can do it, you know you are in trouble.

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Don

Could the directions perhaps have meant that the rungs are made of 2 x 4 lumber and are spaced 5" apart (between the rungs, not on the centers of the rungs)? That's the best I can come up with, because 5" spacing would seem about right for little legs and feet to be able to climb. 2 7/8" spacing of 2 x 4 lumber would seem too close together if you ask me.

I'm glad my kids are grown!

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Ukraine -- now more than ever

Check with coltle6920, he's a whirling dervish at cyphering.

That's right. Next aisle over will have the bags of holes you require.

Funny you should mention that left handed adjustable metric wrench. I've had one for over 45 years now. Use to drive me crazy trying to use it in a area where I couldn't see it, when I kept adjusting it to tighten on a bolt and it kept getting bigger. Every once in a while I'll grab it now and forget it's reversed. I always thought it was made for a lefty.

And yes China made instruction suck. Better just to wing it.

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Psalm 23:4

RC airplanes are still best built the old fashioned way.
Pile of balsa and a plan.

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it just needs more voltage

the instructions were printed in china...i knew i was in trouble before i even started...lol...

this thing is made of pine...and i am pretty sure mom bought a big pile when she walked out of kmart that day...if dad had still been around, this would still be at kmart and we would have made our own...

the rungs were far from 2x4's...it's been since tuesday, but i think i measured them at 2.25ish"x1"

of course things need to be left a little loose for leveling, fit, etc so one of the last things we did before quitting for the day was putting the railing up on the platform...before i go any farther, i am going tovsay that i am thinking my 80lb 12 yr might actually be too heavy for this thing but here i was in all my fatness up on that platform screwing in the rails. i've never been so scared being 4 ft off the ground...i've jumped my quads higher, hung off of a ladder at 35ft...but being on that swing, with everything loose unnerved me...

it's this one right here...Outdoor Backyard Play Set: Kids Play in the Backyard with Kmart

all we have left is the roof, the slide and swings main beam...

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SDMF

You may be joking, but I actually have a left hand hammer. I'm a lefty. When I saw it at Home Depot there was no way I was leaving that store without it. It's my favorite hammer.


It's a sad, but true, state of affairs. Things are made in China and then a computer translates it into English. Much is lost in that translation and it's a rare find to see one that is proofed. Yeah, sometimes you just have to toss the directions and put the thing together.

We were building a swing set for the church. My pastor, bless his heart, is not mechanically inclined. As we were unpacking the set, he asked his wife to get a big bowl. "Hmmm, now why would we need that?", I thought to myself. Then I saw him start to open the little bags of screws/bolts and dump them into the bowl! "STOP!!!!" I screamed. Then I told him that they were in the bags so they would coincide with the directions to make it easier to build. Fortunately he had only dumped two bags in there.

If left to his own devices, that set would have fallen apart before it was built. As it is, they still use it today.

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Freedom isn't free.

I look at directions when I'm finished to see where the leftover parts should go.

4/5's is .8 and he closest I can come is my tape measure in 128's. space them at 2 and 103/128's on center and you ought to get it.
As a dad, putting together a child's swing set (or jungle gym or whatever) is a seminal moment never to be repeated. Relish it because if you are like me and other fathers this will be the LAST one you ever put together until you are a grandfather and by then I would hope you have the sense and money to get someone other than your dumb son in law to help you
Swing sets are packaged with directions that make no sense and measurement increments in cupits. The people who pre drill the holes can't read directions and are smoking weed. Ditto with the guy who packages "all needed" hardware in the little plastic hag that is broken when you find it missing hapd the fasteners. Oh-and the fasteners aren't your regular fasteners that use standerd screw drivers-allen wrenches or whatever you have in your tool box. They require a specialized tool which sometimes they enclose and sometimes they don't and if tey don't you have to drive all over trying to find a place that sellst hat particular shaped bit.
Oh-and since it is a surprise for the little ones-you have to put it together while they're sleeping which means at night-or if you're lucky during the day when mom takes them to chuck e cheese for te afternoon which costs an arm and a leg but don't worry she'll pay for it-yea like it ain't gonna all come out of your pocket anyway at the end of the day and then all of a sudden that 10 year drought decides to end over your back yard and you get 2 inches of rain in 30 minutes and then it stops and the sun comes back out but now the fire ants that were in your neighbors yard are now all over the wet pile of swing set pieces parts you're soaking wet and your cordless drill has shorted out cause you left it outside so now you have to screw in all 3,000 fasteners by hand using that little bitty bit you bought for $10 and YOU JUST RAN OUT OF BEER and your father in law starts mumbling about "proper planning prevents piss poor performance" and by now the fire ants have reached your genitals and suddenly the kids are back and they're jumping up and down screaming for joy cause daddy is making them a swing set and now you've got a bunch of little helpers and you realize....
Yea...it's worth it.

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Forum consigliere

It is nice to know that "building" a swing set hasn't changed since I built my ONLY one 12 years ago.

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Recycled Bricklayer

About twenty years ago, my wife bought a slide that was to be installed as part of a much larger, custom designed and built play area. We're talking 6x6 posts, ladders,raised and enclosed platforms, etc. She then informed me that I could "go out after dark on Christmas eve and build it, so it would be a surprise."

As much as I was flattered by her confidence in my abilities, I had to tell her it wasn't gonna happen overnight. It took some explaining....

this sounds like something that happened to you...as i said, we quit on tuesday because i had to go to my real job, which ironically running a printing press. the plan was to finish on thursday because of storms on wednesday. thursday didn't happen because my pa in law is a Patriot Guard Rider and he ended up having a "mission". i had other obligations yesterday and today...we are hoping the weather holds out for tomorrow...

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SDMF

that's a good story...luckily my wife knows my limitations and often underestimates me...i like it that...i use it as an excuse not to do things at times...lol

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SDMF

Christmas and birthdays for kids and grandkids can result in all the above comments. I mean, who, in their right mind, wants to stay up on Christmas eve when kids won't go to sleep when they should and you have to stay up for hours putting these evil items together? You can easily be up to the wee hours before you can get any sleep. When you finally do get to bed, the kids wake up an hour later and want to see if Santa came. You then have to haul yourself up and can't even get a cup of coffee because you have to get the camera out to capture all the fun. God help you if you've forgotten to charge the batteries in the camera or you've forgotten to buy the batteries the kids will need for all their stuff. Then it's a trip to Wal-mart for batteries so the kids will stop crying. Later in the day you try to sit down as a family and have the huge dinner that was made and the kids are now too excited to eat because they've been consuming the candy they found in their stockings. It's all fun and games and the following year we all do it again.

Assuming that you were not actually intending this to be a humor topic, you just need a DECIMAL SCALE tape measure, such as this one from the Stanley company (4/5 inch = 8/10 inch):



Available from
Stanley 33-272 12-by-1/2-Inch Heavy-Duty Powerlock Decimal Scale Tape Rule with Metal Case - Tape Measures - Amazon.com@@AMEPARAM@@http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41rgBJyoGDL.@@AMEPARAM@@41rgBJyoGDL

Actually the way this is typed:

"except the instructions suggest a 2 and 4'5" spacing between rungs."

That is two and four feet five inches which would translate into 6 feet 5 inches. Or is it 2 holes 4 feet 5 inches?

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Still Running Against the Wind

Somehow, the only swing set Ive ever had to build,I built from scratch using 4x4 cedar,etc and I got paid for it . I even had a client pay me to build a treehouse for her grand babies

You need to practice reverse engineering. In this case reverse translation.

The instructions were written by a person using METRIC measurements and then translated in American Inches.

2 4/5 Inches (2,8 Inches) x 2.54 MM/Inch = 71.12 MM

My best guess is that the design specified 70MM.

Bekeart

cowart, That decimal tape is cool, I'm going to see if they make them in longer versions.

my fat italian fingers do not let me type well...the ' was supposed to be a /...lol

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SDMF

actually, it was supposed to be a humor thread...i mean really, of the general population that do things, actually have one or have even seen one...it's easy enough to get close to their suggested measurement...

and if i had a calculator handy, doing a metric conversion would have been faily easy for this guy who went to school to be a science teacher...lol

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SDMF